PIIEFACE. 



Befoeb the reader decides that an apology ia ne- 

 cessary for the introduction of another work on bees 

 into the presence of those already before the public, 

 it is hoped that he will have the patiencfe to examine 

 the contents of this. 



The writer of the following pages commenced bee- 

 keeping in 1828,. without any knowledge of the busi- 

 ness to assist him, save a few directions about hiving, 

 smoking them with sulphur, &c. Nearly all^the in- 

 formation to be had was so mingled with erroneous 

 whims and notions, that it required a long experience 

 to separate essential and consistent points. It was 

 impossible to procure a work that gave the information 

 necessary for practice. From that, time to the present, 

 no sufficient guide for the inexperienced has appeared. 

 European works, republished here, are of but little 

 value. Weeks, Townley, Miner, and others, writers 

 of this country, within a few years, have given us 

 treatises, valuable to some extent, but have entirely 

 neglected several chapters, very important and essen- 

 tial to the beginner. Keeping bees has been, and ia 



